I just decided to stop at Trader Joe's and Petco after work. Bad idea. The road they're on is one of the major commercial roads here, and also the main way to get to a bunch of residential places, so I figured it would be plowed and salted and everything, especially since there's only been about two inches of snow. Turns out, not so much. I think that was the scariest driving experience of my life. I was skidding all over the place, and the anti-lock brakes kicked in several times.

Scary, Hil! Glad you're ok.

I'm sad about Kuma.

We're supposed to have four days of rain. The mind boggles. And I don't even know if I should have tried to move firewood or not. I went with not, but then today when it was all grey and sad outside, I built a fire anyway, even though I totally didn't need to, temperature-wise.

I am getting jack shit done for work today, and it's bad because I took the last two days for unexpected out of town meetings. And the SO tallied up and said I'd had some untypical event going on for five weeks straight. I was all, huh. And honestly, it's longer than that, really, you could count back to the beginning of November.

So no wonder I'm out of sorts, but really, this shit has got to get done. I've got to get my rhythm back.

And also I've got to get dinner.

And also a flock of red-winged blackbirds flew into the side of my house today. Seriously, there were at least three separate window strikes, but everyone seems to have survived.

Still, very strange. Plus I've had robins for the past week or so, which are only briefly migratory here.

Is everybody going back north already?

So sorry about Kuma, Kat. Such a sweet doggie.

I saw a rufous hummingbird buzzing around the winter sweet bushes the other day. It's been in the teens and 20s at night, too. Tough little guy.

I'm sorry about Kuma.

Well, I didn't get a call from the nurse, so I'll be heading to the ER after the deployment finishes Sunday morning. I did get email from my neuro, which he about never initiates (I lucked into his address, and probably abuse it more than he prefers) which contained the language " I believe we are closer to removing the issues regarding your treatment". I don't even know what it means, or what the timeline is or anything, but I'll take it.

Under 48 hours. I can do this.

Allyson, I've taken Effexor but since I've never had an AD work for me, I don't know if I should be the one giving advice since I was all side-effect and no help apart from knowing that the stuff in my head wasn't just what everyone had (which is helpful, hugely, because it was all in my head but chemically and not me just being weak or something.) Still, they work really well for so many people that I am always VERY in favor of trying them. Effexor can make suicidal ideation worse. It's not the most common side effect but it's there.

Yikes, Hil. I think that's why I just don't drive in snow. Which will be a problem if I ever live where it exists in a real way.

I'm sorry about Kuma. I become attached to Buffista pets.

It's raining here so I drove up into the Park and walked around a bit. It was really lovely and smelled wonderful. The rangers are probably all doing happy dances because it's been a slow gentle rain for hours and that bodes well for wildflowers.

which contained the language " I believe we are closer to removing the issues regarding your treatment". I don't even know what it means, or what the timeline is or anything, but I'll take it.

That seems positive. Fingers are crossed. It's ridiculous that you can't get the treatment that your specialists want.

Liese, I hate bird strikes. My Mom has a lot of doves outside. Those are some dumb birds. But I still feel bad when they smack the window. But I think she's only had one that caused apparent injury. Since they live there, I don't think they just limp home and die either. So dumb birds, but hardy.

I know. I do lots of stuff to avoid it, like sparkly things in the windows. But this one was just nuts. There was a whole gigantic flock. Like, hundreds. And something scared them, east of the house, and they all flew toward the house, scaring the crap out of me and the dog in my west-facing office. And then they sat contentedly on my kennel fence and surrounding trees for a few minutes. And then they all left.

Storm birds, flocking ahead of whatever front is presumably about to dump all that rain on you. Though that shouldn't make them bump into your house.